Re: Thanks for the baby steps.
The last 4 lines are indented by a tab stop. I've seen this in other text config files too. It's incorrect, isn't it? Could that be causing problems?
No, that will not cause problems. They're probably indented (as mine are on my Linux server) to make each different interface stand out by being "undented."
What do I need to use to be able to edit and overwrite config files that are owned by root? I see a "root terminal" app under the GUI menu, but I'd like to be able to easily do it from a GUI file manager and GUI editor. I understand that I don't have permission to change root files, but I know there are ways to have the system prompt for root passwords - I just can't seem to ever remember the hocus-pocus to make that happen.
Instead of using the command
vi /etc/network/interfaces, you want to
sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces (or whatever root-owned file you're interested in.) You'll then be prompted for a password; this is
your password, not root's. You really shouldn't even know what root's password is. Everything you need to do to root-owned files, you can do through
sudo.